New Delhi, April 15: The government today denied any move to introduce reservations in the private sector, saying there was "no such proposal", a year after the National Commission for Backward Classes had suggested enacting a law to make private firms set aside jobs for marginalised sections.

"There is no such proposal (for reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) in the private sector," social justice and empowerment minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot told a news conference.

"A committee has been set up for talking to the private sector to create a consensus. But there is no consensus yet. Once there is consensus, we will consider," Gehlot added.

An expert on reservations said the demand for job quotas in the private sector was around a decade-and-a-half old but successive governments have avoided coming up with anything concrete.

The NCBC had last year recommended that the government enact a law to make it mandatory for the private sector to reserve 27 per cent of jobs for OBCs, while food minister Ram Vilas Paswan has suggested that private sectors voluntarily set aside jobs for SCs, STs and OBCs.

Rajya Sabha member D. Raja said Gehlot's comments were disappointing. "This government is not interested in social justice. They are very good in doing lip service by setting up memorials in the name of Babasaheb Ambedkar," Raja told The Telegraph.

Raja is among several Dalit and OBC lawmakers who have been asking the government to take legislative action for reservation in the private sector. He had raised a similar question last year too in the Upper House.

"Jobs in the government sector are shrinking. The Niti Aayog is advising the government to privatise more and more public sector undertakings, including the profit-making ones. That is why there is a need for reservation in the private sector," Raja said.